1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable terminal such as a portable telephone, and more particularly to a portable terminal having a plurality of communicating sections corresponding to voice communication, an E-mail, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technique for switching over communication systems or communicating section depending on the kind of the partner terminal, the situations of communication, or the like is known.
For example, JP-A-9-130425 discloses an E-mail transmitting and receiving system having: a device which converts voice to characters; a device which converts characters to voice; and a device which converts kana/kanji characters to kana characters. In the system, an E-mail is converted while selecting one of the devices which is suited to the kinds of terminals transmitting and receiving the E-mail, and then transferred, thereby realizing the use of an E-mail in various kinds of terminals.
JP-A-2003-78648 and JP-A-2003-78649 disclose communication apparatuses in which, when an E-mail is to be transmitted, the reception state of the partner communication apparatus is checked in advance of the transmission, and the method of transmitting the E-mail is changed in accordance with a result of the check.
A communication system is known in which, when the partner terminal rejects character communication (chat), or when communication is disabled because of reasons such as that the partner terminal is positioned outside the communication range, character communication is switched to mail communication performed through the identical communication path.
Another communication apparatus is known in which, when communication is disabled because of reasons such as that the partner terminal is positioned outside the communication range, an E-mail for an incoming call notification is transmitted to the partner terminal.
A further communication system is known which has a function of, when a terminal in which voice communication is inhibited, for example, in the case of driving a vehicle, informing the partner terminal that communication with an E-mail can be received.
JP-A-9-130425, JP-A-2003-78648, and JP-A-2003-78649 are referred to as related art.
Usually, recent portable telephones have various communication functions in addition to voice communication. A typical communication function is a function of communication of E-mails via the Internet. Many of the other communication functions are compatible with E-mail distribution services such as that called SMS (short message service). The SMS is a service in which simple messages can be exchanged between portable telephones with using a communication sequence for voice communication. In the service, the communication fee is set to be low. Therefore, the service gets many users.
In the SMS, when an E-mail according to the SMS (hereinafter, referred to as SMS mail) is to be transmitted between portable telephones subscribing to the same carrier, the SMS mail is transmitted with designating the destination telephone number. When an SMS mail to be transmitted to another portable telephone is produced, therefore, the user is not required to input a special address for an SMS mail. When an SMS mail received from another portable telephone is opened, the telephone number of the portable telephone is displayed as a mail address of the transmission source.
On the other hand, when a large number of communications are concentrated at a time in a portable telephone base station, for example, a congested state occurs. In the case where such a state occurs, the base station may temporarily regulate communication between portable telephones. In the communication regulation, it is often that all communications are regulated irrespective of the kinds such as voice communication, an E-mail, an SMS mail, or that only voice communication is regulated in view of nuisance to the surround.
In a communication standard called “cdma2000” and the like, communication regulation can be performed on each of the kinds. Contrary to the above, therefore, a case may possibly occur where voice communication is possible but E-mail communication is regulated.
In a portable terminal having the plurality of the communicating sections (voice communication, an E-mail, an SMS mail, and the like), when a situation where respective communication paths can be independently regulated occurs, the user oneself must manually check which the communicating section is effective when communication regulation occurs, and make a determination such as that alternative communicating section is used, or that communication is stopped. Consequently, there arises a problem in that operations of the check and determination take a lot of trouble. In all of the related art described above, no measure for enabling the user to check which the communicating section is effective when communication regulation occurs is taken, and hence the problem cannot be solved.
In the communication system where character communication is switched to mail communication performed through the identical communication path, when communication regulation occurs in the communication path, the user must manually check whether or not the communication can be switched to voice communication or E-mail communication which uses another communication path. Consequently, there arises a problem in that operations require a lot of trouble.